A "personal watercraft," or so-called "PWC," generally refers to a jet-propelled watercraft for three or fewer persons, each of whom straddles a seat while sitting in tandem one behind the other. Common PWCs include the watercraft sold by Kawasaki under the trademark "Jet Ski" and the watercraft sold by Yamaha under the trademarks "WaveRunner" and "WaveRaider."
A PWC is generally designed to be highly maneuverable on the water and often is driven aggressively at relatively high speeds, often making it difficult for persons riding to remain on the PWC. Furthermore, the condition of the body of water upon which the PWC is ridden also can make it difficult for persons riding to remain on the PWC, especially if the body of water is an ocean. This is true whether the rider is the driver or a passenger.
A number of developments have been made to assist each person in remaining on a PWC. For example, driving gloves have been designed specifically for driving a PWC which include padded sections that enable the driver of the PWC to engage handgrips of the PWC tightly without developing blisters. Straps have also been provided on PWC seats to give passengers something onto which to hold, and seat padding on PWCs have been extended down the sides of the PWC whereby each rider, whether driver or passenger, can grip the PWC between his or her thighs.
In addition thereto, footrests comprising angled inclines have also been designed by manufacturers into the body of the PWC in the foot well areas. Such angled inclines are designed to accommodate the bottom of the foot of a rider for bracing the rider against acceleration of the PWC. This type of foot support is utilized in the PWCs disclosed, for example, in Kobayashi, U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,116, as well as in FIG. 1 of Hattori, U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,682.
While each of these developments has assisted riders in remaining on PWCs, a need continues for the provision of better support and stability for riders which lessens the effort exerted by such riders in remaining on board the watercraft during aggressive or competitive maneuvering.